Dying for Your Love
by Amberbydreams
Summary: Spottedpaw is at her first gathering, and she meets an interesting young ShadowClan apprentice. Soon, their friendship will swirl out of control. Crack pairing: Clawface/Spottedleaf


Dying for Your Love

A short fanfiction.

The apprentice walked confidently around the clearing, his brown fur glowing in the moonlight, green eyes searching around the clearing for other Clan's apprentices. It was his fourth gathering, ten moons old. He saw the oldest ThunderClan apprentice glowering by his mentor, Tigerclaw. Nearby, nervously staying near their mentors, were apprentices he had never seen before. One was a small, brown tabby, closely flanked by a lighter tabby tom. A darker brown she-cat was padding next to the last of the new apprentices; a light tortoiseshell she-cat, delicately framed and graceful even at her young age. Another ShadowClan apprentice walked up next to him.

"Hello, Stumpypaw" he mewed a greeting. Stumpypaw had a normal name until recently when he had lost a chunk of his tail in a battle; his name had been changed, per Raggedstar's sense of humor. Most apprentices dreaded having any accident change their appearance in case the leader might change their name for it. In hindsight, it was pretty amusing for harmless names like Stumpytail (as everyone knew Stumpypaw's would become), but the poor young warrior Runningnose was living forever in the butt of jokes for a cold that would not leave him alone.

"Hey, Fangpaw, let's go greet the new ThunderClan apprentices," Stumpypaw suggested, a hint of malicious intent in his voice.

"You do know that they're going to want to run and hide," Fangpaw commented, waving his tail at the tiny cats.

"That's what makes it funny."

Fangpaw nodded. "Let's go."

As predicted, the apprentices cowered away as the larger ShadowClan apprentices approached. Their annoyed mentors shoved them off as they tried to run for safety. "So, who are you, new guys?" Fangpaw asked, smiling at the apprentices devilishly.

"Um…" The brown tabby started. "I'm Brindlepaw."

There was a short silence. "Go on," Stumpypaw meowed impatiently.

"I'm Runningpaw, and this is Mousepaw." The light brown tabby introduced the brown she-cat next to him.

"I'm Spottedpaw. I'm the new Medicine Cat apprentice. And who are you two?" The smallest of the four spoke with a presence of authority unusual to ThunderClan.

"Well, little snarker, I am Fangpaw." Fangpaw swished his tail to the side as he spoke, impressed with the little she-cat.

"I'm Stumpypaw." He seemed slightly dumbfounded at the Spottedpaw's tone.

A small snicker of amusement spilled from Mousepaw's mouth. "How come your mom named you that?"

Fangpaw answered for his friend. "Raggedstar's got a bit of a cruel sense of humor, and he'll re-name a lot of the apprentices for happenstances that come about during training. Like the warrior Runningnose, one summer he had a cold the whole season, and now he's stuck with that name forever. Even his son, Brokentail, was named as a kit for, well, his broken tail."

Spottedpaw twitched her ear. "That's not very nice."

Stumpypaw had recovered his breath, and added his own comment. "Well, that's just how ShadowClan is, weaklings."

Mousepaw pinned her ears back. "We're not weak!"

Stumpypaw snickered. "Oh yeah? Who lost that chunk of territory across the Thunderpath this moon with just one battle?"

Spottedpaw growled fiercely at the ShadowClan apprentice. "Hey! Some ThunderClan cats are still injured from that fight."

Stumpypaw shrugged. "That's why you're there. So that you can nurse your pathetic Clanmate's wounds and pride while the warriors do the real work."

Spottedpaw looked like she was either about to rip his face off or cry. Most likely the former. "Dude, lay off," Fangpaw growled. "You should respect medicine cats. Besides, you don't want to start a fight during the truce."

Stumpypaw looked at him contemptuously. "Fine, if you want to go join ThunderClan, I'll leave you alone." The brown tom stormed off, tail high in the air.

Fangpaw sighed. He turned towards the ThunderClan apprentices. Spottedpaw was still fuming. "Don't mind him. His name was just changed this moon, one of your warriors took his tail from him, and he still rather wants it back."

Spottedpaw chuckled at the comment, he fur lying flat. "Tigerclaw brought it back as his one prize from the fight. He was fuming worse, I can promise you that."

Fangpaw's eyes got wide. "Tigerclaw? Stumpypaw didn't recognize Tigerclaw fighting him? That warrior's even feared in ShadowClan! No wonder he lost his tail. The idiot, attacking Tigerclaw…" He trailed off, his fur getting hot. "I probably shouldn't have told you that."

Darkpaw, who had been sitting a little ways off, smirked. "He'll be glad to know that he's a threat." The older apprentice stalked off to find his mentor.

"Foxdung!" Fangpaw spat. "That tattle-tale."

"You know Darkpaw?" the question came from Runningpaw.

"We've been to some of the same gatherings."

Then the yowl came from atop the highrock, signaling the beginning of the gathering. Secretly grateful for the excuse to run away, Mousepaw, Runningpaw and Brindlepaw all left in a hurry. Spottedpaw hesitated.

"Hey," Fangpaw meowed vaguely. "Stumpypaw's not gonna let me anyehre near him, and none of the other ShadowClan apprentices are interesting. Want to stay and keep me company?"

Spottedpaw nodded. "Sure."

The two of then were silent for a while, listening to the RiverClan leader give a normal report, followed by WindClan. Then Raggedstar started up. He and Bljuestar started arguing about the battle, added with comments from TigerClaw and Brokentail, but after a long time, the arguments got nowhere, and the young cats started to whisper among themselves.

"So," Fangpaw started, "You're about six moon old?"

"No, actually," Spottedpaw mewed. "I'm eight moon old with three moons of apprenticeship. Featherwhisker's afraid that he's going to die any day and convinced Bluestar to let me apprentice early. How old are you?"

"Ten moons. I'll probably become a warrior after my next battle."

Spottedpaw nodded. "Exciting."

"I just hope that I don't get any scars, or you just know that Raggedstar's going to name me after it."

"A lot goes on in clans besides ThunderClan, I guess."

Fanpaw chuckled. "You bet."

Spottedpaw looked sideways at him. "And you're not half as bad as Darkpaw makes ShadowClan look."

"We're very proud of our clan," Fangpaw admitted. "Well, we _are _the best."

"Riiight."

"Heh. Anyway, ThunderClan life seems pretty distant to me. The clans are just separated. That's how it's supposed to be."

"Well," Spottedpaw shifted her weight uneasily. "I just wish I could heal cats from all clans."

"Yeah," Fangpaw chuckled. "You could steal Tigerclaw's 'prize' and stick it back on Stumpypaw."

Spottedpaw's whisker's twitched. "No, I mean, I just want to be able to see all points of view. See what the world really is. Maybe StarClan will help me with that, someday."

"Yeah," Fangpaw shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe."

The leaders were closing, the argument settling down to mere glares from the warriors of both sides. Soon the clans were heading out.

"Well," Fangpaw started. "I'll see you next gathering?"

Spottedpaw smiled, her green eyes gleaming. "I hope so."

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Well, here's the Author's Note.

I'm taking on too many stories. This is my fourth in active updating.

You may be a bit confused by the notation of it being a 'short' fanficiton. Well, the truth is, this was going to be a two-shot fanfiction, but I have too many ideas, so it's going to be like a series of one-shots that make a single story.

I'm not going for mystery here, so basically, this is proud to be the first ClawfacexSpottedleaf fanfiction in . I am the proud creator of this crack pairing. Please R&R, and this will get better, trust me! (PLEASE review.)

I'm sorry about how short this is!


End file.
